PAR 
Son on christenings, marriages, burials, &c. 
besides wages for their maintenance. He 
must be twenty years of age, and of honest 
conversation, and is generally appointed by 
the minister, unless there is a custom for 
the churcliwardens and parishioners to elect. 
It is an office for life, and a freehold. He 
may make a deputy without licence of the 
bishop. 
PARISHIONER, an inhabitant of, o# 
belonging to, any parish, lawfully settled 
there. Parishioners are a body politic to 
many purposes ; as to vote at a vestry if 
they pay' scot and lot, and they have a sole 
right to raise taxes for their own relief, 
without the interposition of any superior 
court; may make by-laws to mend the 
highways, and to make banks to keep out 
the sea, and for repairing the church, and 
making a bridge ; and for making and main- 
taining fire engines. They may also pur- 
chase workhouses for the poor, or any such 
thing for the public good. 
PARKINSONIA, in botany, so named 
in memory of John Parkinson, a genus of 
the Decandria Monogynia class and order. 
Natural order of Lomentacese. Legumi- 
nosm, Jussieu. Essential character : calyx 
five-cleft ; petals five, ovate, the lowest 
kidney-form ; style none ; leg\ime necklace 
form. There is but one species, viz. P. 
aculeata, prickly Parkinsonia. It is a na- 
tive of Jamaica, where it is called Jerusa- 
lem thorn. 
PARLIAMENT, The parliament is the 
legislative branch of the supreme power of 
Great Britain, consisting of the King, the 
Lords spiritual and temporal, and the 
Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, represen- 
tatives of the Commons of the Realm, in 
Parliament assembled. 
The power and jurisdiction of Parliament 
is so transcendent and absolute, that it can- 
not be confined, either for causes or per- 
sons, within any bounds. 
The Parliament must be summoned by the 
King, and not by authority of either house, 
at least forty days before it sits, although 
the Convention Parliament (the House of 
Commons), from necessity, was summoned 
by the Keepers of the Liberty of England, 
by authority of Parliament. It cannot 
begin without the King in person, or by 
representation. The principal privileges of 
Parliament are the privilege ofspeech, which 
is essential to its existence, and to which 
there are no exceptions, except in some 
precedents of information filed for using 
free language during the reign of the se- 
par 
cond Charles, which it is to be hoped will 
never be drawn into authority, and the pri- 
vilege of person from arrest and imprison- 
ment for debt. This privilege lasts for forty 
days after the prorogation of the Parliament, 
and forty days previous to its meeting. But 
all other privileges derogating from the 
common laws and matters of civil right, aie 
abolished by several statutes ; and by 4 
George III. c. 33, a trader, being a Mem- 
ber of Parliament, may be served with le- 
gal process for any just debt to the amount 
of one hundred pounds, and unless he 
makes satisfaction within two months, it 
shall be an act of bankruptcy. Vide sta- 
tutes 12 William HI. c. 3; 2 and 3 Ann, 
c. 18; 11 George II. c. 24. Statute 10 
George III. c. 50 ; 4 George III. c. 33. 
It is one of the privileges of the Peers to 
be entitled to vote by proxy, and also to 
enter a protest against any bill to which 
they may dissent. But all money bills 
must commence with the Commons ; and it 
is now the custom, if any alteration is made 
by the Lords in a money bill, for the Com- 
mons to reject it and bring in another, even 
though the new bill should contain the regu- 
lation proposed by the Lords. 
The House of Commons is a denomina- 
tion given to tlie lower house of Parlia- 
ment. In a free state, every man who is 
supposed a free agent, ought to be in some 
measure his own governor, and therefore 
a branch at least of the legislative power 
should reside in the whole body of the 
people. In elections for representatives 
for Great Britain, anciently, all the peo- 
ple had votes ; but King Henry VI. to 
avoid tumults, first appointed tliat none 
should vote for knights but such as were 
freeholders, did reside in the county, and 
had forty shillings yearly revenue. In so 
large a state as ours, therefore, it is very 
wisely contrived that the people should do 
that by their representatives, which it is 
impracticable to perform in person ; repre- 
sentatives chosen by a number of minute 
and separate districts, wherein all the vo- 
ters, or may be, easily distinguished. The 
counties are therefore represented by 
knights, elected by the proprietors of lands, 
the cities and boroughs are represented by 
citizens and burgesses, chosen by the mer- 
cantile, or supposed trading interest of the 
nation. 
The peculiar laws and customs of the 
House of Commons, relate principally to 
the raising of taxes, and the elections of 
members to serve in Parliament. 
